QuestionI loaned a 2006 Chevy Impala to a whom I thought was a friend of mine. I have known him for 15 years and he was down on his luck. I am a Virginia resident, and he lived and worked in Charleston, South Carolina.
I made him sign an agreement that he would provide payment to me to cover the insurance on the car and take care of the vehicle, for two reasons. One, to take care of the vehicle and I could go after him for damages, and two, so that if he was pulled over he could show that he was an authorized operator of my vehicle.
After two months, he stopped making payments. I tried on several occasions to locate him. Unfortunately since I loaned him the car I could not file a stolen vehicle report and have OnStar help me find it.
I would later file a police report for larceny of rental equipment and my tag number and VIN was entered into a National database.
I say all these things to give you a background of this mess and to keep others from making the same mistake that I did.
Here is where the towing question comes into play:
The vehicle was picked up in Charleston, SC (Summerville) when the operator of the vehicle was arrested. Unfortunately it wasn't my friend, it was someone I did not know. The vehicle was requested to be towed by the Police. On the tow report, my address was clearly written on the tow report, and showed NO damage to the vehicle whatsoever. This was 04/28/08.
On 07/02/08 I received a notice from a SC title company that my car had been towed and was in storage at the towing facility. They wanted $125 for towing, $175 for titling fee, and $2135 in storage fees ($35 per day from 04/28/2008).
I flew down to SC the very next day and arrived at the towing facility. The car was there, backed up to a fence. For the most part it looked okay. Further inspection showed the the car had extensive front fender and bumper damage, the windshield was cracked (someone had hit it with fist or something), a flat tire, and damage due to being backed into the fence for 60 days.
On the towing report, my name and address was clearly written and in the front seat the registration for the vehicle was out.
When I arrived the tow truck driver was amazed. He said that normally an insurance company comes and was suprised that no one had showed because it was a new car (value $17K). In this case, I could not file a claim, because the car again, was not legally stolen.
I managed to negotiate with the company (Driver owned), to knock 30 days off of the storage fees, which I still thought were excessive as he knew who the owner was.
What should he be legally entitled to? There are several SC statues concerning towing of a vehicle, to include towing by police. Since I was stuck without transportation, I paid the bill.
Last night I received a phone call from the arresting officer in SC. He indicated that there was NO damage whatsoever on the vehicle before he had it towed, and the report indicated the same. What is the best way to contact the towing company to inquire, should I use my attorney?
Thanks for your time, and I hope this is posted for others to see. DON'T loan your vehicle to anyone, it's not a good idea.
AnswerWell it does seem strange that it took that long to notify you, but at times dealing with out of state vehicles does take time to get the information back from the original state of registration...
I know that is not an excuse, but it does happen though the US mail and that is not always fast... Plus they have some laws which can affect the initial time of notification..
And then in some areas the police department does the notifications...
It gets confusing to say the least...
Now I would suggest that since there is some "damage" which was done after the vehicle was listed as "damage free" I would go the attorney route...
I know that its expensive but the tow company will most likely involve their insurance company and that opens up a whole new can of worms to handle...
And yes its best not to loan out your vehicle. It gets expensive and very inconvenient at times.
Hope all goes well.
